Tyler's DD/plaything

[Sampuppy1]

One more thing I'm not sure I have pics of cause it ain't necessary......I was going through a local junk yard last fall and found a burb with a new hitch, bumper, shocks and 4 pin harness. I snagged the bumper shocks (Bilstein HD) and some skid plates and front diff bracket off a Z with the help of my gf Emily. She also helped with the removal an install of them on my truck.

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Ignore the blown brake line. It's the only pic of the shocks that I have right now.



Tyler/T-Unit

 

[Sampuppy1]

Well I continued my led conversion with some help from MOBS. $35 plus shipping got me this bright sonovabitch.
With dome and maps both on.

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With just dome and stock white lens

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And with just dome and $7 LMC Truck clear diffused lens. So worth it. Everyone should buy one of these. At $7 shipped and cheaper when you buy more it really cleans up the look of that dome light.

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Tyler/T-Unit

 

[Sampuppy1]

Well it's been awhile since I've done anything to the truck other than drive it. Money has even very tight lately so I don't have a lot of spare parts money. But I did upgrade a few things courtesy of Justjoshiny and rock auto. I broke both interior handles which I hear is pretty common on the 95+ interiors. So I started a thread and josh just happened to have a nali parting out with tan interior handles for the right price they were on my door step in a couple days and I put them in. Another thing I should mention that I did almost a year ago. I got sick of the two piece brittle one time use pin/retainer style panel clips breaking all the time. So I took a pin (interior panel side) into my local napa and found a similar attachment style Christmas tree clip. It was a ford style but they work great! Taken my panels off at least 6 times since without breaking a single one and the panels never come loose anymore.

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This past weekend I got sick of smelling gas all the time after driving. It's been bothering me and three weeks ago when I filled up and let it sit I had a few puddles of fuel under it. Time for a new tank says I.

Jumped on rock auto got a 25 gal steel tank (with lock ring kit), straps, hardware, and a new strainer for around $150. It shipped to my door in good shape and pretty quick. I ordered on a Saturday night I think it showed up the next Wednesday. So three business days. Went out got some rustoleum bed liner and clear coat took three cans of liner and two cans of clear to satisfy me. I did a terrible prep job so it didn't stick well and it was right around 50 degrees when I painted it all. So it's no surprise the paint hasn't held where it got bumped and scratched on install but I don't think it will rust fast enough for me to worry about before I pull the truck apart and restore it.

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Sent from what is likely a government flagged smartphone. Tyler/T-Unit

 

[Sampuppy1]

Time for an update.

So money is still tight but my debt assault mod is really steaming along. I'm down to a measly $1,000. Two months and I am a free man. No cards, no loans and no payments aside from rent $100/mo, insurance and the phone. I've sold my dune tires hopefully to help in this effort and a job change is looking to be in effect shortly. Still not 100% sure its happening but its VERY promising.

As for the truck. Its been rocky since the new year. This winter was really harsh here in the mitten. Between my full time heavy truck mechanic job and plowing for an excavator I did a ton of driving to and from jobs in bad weather and the cancer has spread. It breaks my heart really.

February 15 week I went to Florida on vacation. My exhaust I have complained about being unable to keep hangers on for more than a month besides coat hangers that seem to last a year or more was really starting to rot away from the cab back. The tips were horrible. I came home to find a brand new stainless Flowmaster super 40, pipes and tips residing from the cab back. I was elated! It sounded beautiful. Sadly I was not meant to have nice things as four days later on my lunch break I was the first vehicle involved in a chain reaction 5 vehicle pile up that sent one girl, 2 weeks from her due date, to the hospital. My four day old exhaust had the mount ripped out of the pipe, slightly cracked my drivers side manifold, bent my frame, wrecked my hitch and bumper mounts and dented my bed corner. I didn't have a whole lot of time to be pissed off on my half hour lunch break that took two hours. I came home with my new exhaust banging on my axle tube on every bump and dip in the road. I did cry a little when I got home.

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$1,000 is all I got from the focus drivers insurance since I have plpd. 350 of that got my frame straightened, my bumper mostly lined back up and my hitch just needs new bolts. I strung the exhaust up with coat hangers again and have had no failures with them. Honestly it needs a whole brand new setup aside from the muffler and tips. I will save those. The rest went to my anti debt assault mod.

For the most part since I've just been keeping up with maintenance and fueling her up. The manifold has cracked completely through and sounds like hell. It is begging for headers, new cats, sensors and pipe. But I have a bolt broken off in the head requiring the head to come off the engine. With $1,000 left before I'm free, exhaust will just have to wait.

I did however last week finish the upper corner mod I've been drooling over for some time now. With my recent dice into distribution, and installation of HyPer products and custom mods I was able to do this for nothing.

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I know the right running light is out. It worked for about 20 mins and then had a mind of its own. It's a wiring issue in the truck harness. Tackling that after work tomorrow. Also installed my temp sensor and ran the wires into the cab for it to prep for my compass temp mirror hookup soon.

After that the short term mods in the next couple months are to crank the bars up to level (bothering me) replace the front driving lights with LED recon pod lights and install a 6 function LED tailgate bar. Then go with led running lights. Tires are also going to be on the short list before fall. Toyo Open Country ATII in the 285/75/16 flavor. Plan to reattach the hitch as well in a couple weeks. Polish up all the chrome and wash her.

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[Sampuppy1]

Well with the new job and recent HyPer affiliation I've been banking money like a madman. Decided to splurge a little bit last week and got a set of front lights that I've been wanting for a couple years. Turns out P1 had a set with LED park/turn lights for the price of the non LED ones on eBay. I jumped at the chance. After fighting some issues with the drivers side parking light they work flawlessly! I love them. Also decided to replace my HVAC button lights since I got out of work early for a change today.

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I know the low beam is out. The bulb is burned way out of spec. My 55watt ballasts will ignite it. It just burns pink. New bulbs will be ordered this week. (Correction: ordered yesterday) Should be in before the weekend I hope. At which time I will aim the lights. They look amazing. Bought 6000k and 8000k low beam bulbs. At $12 a pair I couldn't decide if I wanted all white or a hint of blue so I said why not have both.

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Also put my LEDs in the indicators of the HVAC. Still need to track down the source of my control illumination not working. May just have to find a set that doesn't have broken clips.

In the process of taking off the dash bezel I broke my sub remote wire so I have zero bass. Gonna fix that this weekend.

sent from what is likely a government flagged smartphone. Tyler/T-Unit

 

[Sampuppy1]

Yesterday I worked and got out early. Took a short nap did some running around and went to a party at Emily's cousins place. Left there around 2AM. Got home passed out for two hours woke up and headed out to go to the sand dunes. Arrived at a park and ride at 6:40 to wait out the ORV area opening. Slept on the oh so comfy 95+ 60/40 split bench. I love that thing. Tuck away the seat belt latches and you have a nice bed. The door panel arm rests make great pillows with a sweatshirt or actual pillow on top of them.

While at the dunes I was fairly bored at a few points so I reconnected my amp signal wire so I have bass again. Replaced my 5000k lights with 8000k and repaired the low beam accessory wire from the 4hi mod relay so that works again. Also figured out my HVAC does illuminate. But all the bulbs were out. So LEDs went in.

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Simple interior LED conversion is completed. Now its on to the little stuff.

sent from what is likely a government flagged smartphone. Tyler/T-Unit

 

[Sampuppy1]

Since this HyPer affiliation is really beginning to take off and my truck is literally becoming a showcase for our products the gf and I both agreed that the green machine is lacking in aesthetic performance.

Emily's first two of the 5 semesters of her college program are fully paid for including supplies and books. That means I have well over 6 months to work on the truck and make improvements all while still helping put more away towards those next three semesters.

To start; everyone says the blue Walmart lights up front gotta go. They don't flow. I couldn't agree more. One is burnt out and the bulbs are $15. Screw that. I paid $20 for the entire kit lights, housings, wire, switch, fuse and holder, and battery terminal connectors. So I took a step up. I got a 22" led light bar ordered. Came off of eBay. It was $135 and claims to have Cree LEDs. Same brand HyPer uses. Better than $300 or more for a rigid. Should come in this week. Just need to modify my bracket a little.

Next up and this was all Emily. She got bored at work. Instead of sitting on Facebook she went shopping for truck parts! (No. She's not for sale or rent. I'm keeping her!) She found me a pair of certified to fit front fenders on rock auto for $250 shipped. LMC truck wants that just for shipping alone on ONE fender. Fawk that. Ordered those up last night. Paint will come from my cousin who happens to be an estimator for the only Mercedes Benz/ Audi/ Lexus certified body shop in west Michigan. He's taking care of the fenders and cowl hood I may or may not yet need. There's a crinkle in the factory hood from a crunch with a tree. If it doesn't affect the new fenders or look dead obvious and unrepairable I'll keep the hood. If the hood won't shut or it messes up the paint it's time for a 2" squared cowl. The tailgate will be painted free of charge by Emily's cousin. There's not really any blending to be done back there so he can paint it off the truck. And you can't beat free. May just have the visor resprayed. Jury's still out on that one.

This week it should be going to the dealer. I'm finally getting so sick of the manifold and exhaust issues that I'm going to fix it once and for all. The truck sounds like absolute dog ****. The dealer will be removing and replacing all manifold bolts. Then I'm ordering headers cats and new o2 sensors. Lastly it will get new cat back pipe and use the current muffler since it was never damaged in the wreck. New tips will finish it off; stainless of course.

Updates will follow as things get completed. Also have to chase down a ghost headlight out on the sunfart. Last time this happened I spent an entire day ripping the car apart inside and out to find that an old junk wire repair finally threw in the towel. When I fixed the harness it was real tight. If that's the problem I'm rebuilding and relocating the whole front harness. Her crash probably didn't help much either.

sent from what is likely a government flagged smartphone. Tyler/T-Unit

 

[Sampuppy1]

Time for another update. This one has some major changes to the style of the truck. Yes its still green. Yes its still rusty but I've now upgraded everything lighting wise other than the third brake which will come very shortly I hope.

First off I replaced all the front lights with the smoked set I've had my eyes on for awhile now. But its better because I bought them off of P1(1997chevydriver) they have led park/turn units instead of the normal bulb style. After a fair bit of fiddling with the plugs and such I was able to get them working properly! I also fixed my 4hi mod and replaced my low beam ballasts with a pair of used HyPer units. Also decided to change to 8,000k low beam bulbs. The whole look on the front of the truck is changed. I love it!

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Oh and I got rid of the crap blue Meijer special $20 driving lights and replaced them with a 22" LED light bar. I'm not going to say what brand or how much I paid until I put some miles and hours on it to see how it holds up. It was a mildly cheap eBay one so I don't want to talk it up and then have it let a bunch of people down. So far it has performed flawlessly. Its bright as the heavens. I had people flashing me in broad daylight if I turned it on. It rivals or exceeds my 4hi mod.

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Also finally got to changing out my visor lights to LEDs. I went with amber and they glow a perfect amber now. I love it. Just need to perform the upper corner mod on my new corners and I will be set. I need some spare time to do it. I'm doing it right this time now that I have clear lenses and this truck is my HyPer show piece.

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[Sampuppy1]

Woah. Been a minute since I updated this.

For starts I finished the upper corner mod before the snow started flying. Something about bare sockets and road salt just didn't tickle me in the right ways. I was sent a couple sets of side markers from P1 and one had a chrome interior lower! So I cut the bulb riser out and drilled a hole in the smoked top corner and glued the riser to it. Popped in a white LED for symmetrical reasons (all white upper lights and Amber lowers) and she's looking halfway decent again!

While I was messing with it an idea hit me. I have a green truck and clear visor lenses. Why not have green cab lights?! So out came the Amber ones and in went the greens. Holy. Crap. Green was insane. Even with my 4hi mod and the LED bar my cab lights would turn road signs GREEN. Turned many heads too. So many people would stare. Little kids would point at it, random people would come up to me at gas stations and I thought it was sweet as hell. The state cop that passed me on my way home after a 20 hour work day one night apparently had other opinions. Well it was fun while it lasted. He wasn't too happy I was carrying the Amber ones just in case that situation did arise so I got a r&r for front window tint. HAHAHA yeah right dude. I didn't want that $150 anyways. I like my tint. But I did swap the green lights out. Too much attention for right now. And I've since seen some county plow rigs running green strobes in combination with the Amber ones. A little research turned up a trial run with state and local municipalities testing green lights for better visibility (science has proven green is more visible to the human eye than any other color. Look it up. Some of the science behind night vision goggles and new laser sights being green instead of the usual red)

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Let's see. Oh my blower motor finally threw in the towel. The past year it has progressively made its way to shiitting the bed. Started with a mild chirping that The radio easily drowned out to every once in a great while not turning and a slight tap on the ass would get it going to whacking it with a snow brush to kicking it to beating the living daylights out of it with a short handle 3lb sledge to gah shiit. I better buy one I'm probably denting the backing plate. Was dreading the job based on how much of a pain in the arse doing anything else on these trucks can be and with a half price new one from Napa due to a workplace discount and a gift card my sister gave me for Christmas I was pleasantly surprised to find the old one was out in about 5 minutes and there was no junk in the housing at all. New one was back in and blowing like a homeless crack addict. Rubber sound buffer included!

Before that I did a thermostat cause she was taking a bit to heat up in the fall weather and I hadn't replaced it since I got it. Figured it was well past due. Another quickie job and she heats up in about 5 minutes. Found a water pump leak while I was digging around but no puddles yet. Hoping to gimp it along till spring.

Bought a couple new fenders awhile back. Not sure if that was in a previous update or not. Oem and in primer. Those will wait til the asphalt plant fires up in spring and every last speck of salt dust has long since washed away from these pothole laden things we have here they call roads. Got a grille from the junk yard that looks to be about a week old. Had all new lights in it too. Bumper under it was a newer smoothie. Not my style so it stayed. That'll go on with the fenders. Tailgate gets painted with them. (no more drunk rattle can primer job!) no pics for those. Still in boxes in a buddy's basement.

Last but not least the pioneer head unit I had was switched for a newer Bluetooth one. Got a sweet discount on two of them from Best Buy and the Gfs xplod from the early 90s just wasn't up to par anymore with sticking cracking buttons and a USB slot that refused to do anything. I'll update with pics later.

Also got rid of my overplayed and we'll worn set of BFG all terrains. She's gliding on a fresh set of Toyo open country ATII's now. 265/75/16. I needed some new grips. The old BFGs wore well but they barely got me through last winter. Sold my second set of Toyos and junk dune rims for a cool $200. One Craigslist deal I do not regret. I'll be back for a tread wear update next winter. I did test out the new ones and they dig all day. At least for a daily. I'm sure they wouldn't serve well in the sloppy shiit but on the road and the easy trails I do they grab and they go. Didn't even need 4x4 for my test trip. Do good in the sand and snow as well which was my main reason for going back to Toyo in the first place. I don't have a bad word about these so far aside from the fact the standard load tires don't have the strongest tread ply which is fine until. They wear down. Then it seems like you drive around a nail factory all week. At least the original open country tires did. These might be different. We will just have to see.

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I'm finally on my way to tackling this horrid exhaust!!!!! Christmas came a week early. My stubborn ass was hell bent on buying a set of JBA stainless headers for the truck for about a month. When I had the money I was about to commit to buying them and a 10lb present dropped on my legs. I was forced to open it and boom. There they were!!!! I had three of my closest friends trying to convince me I would be better off doing an LS swap or buying a different truck. I didn't have the coin for the LS and I refuse to let this truck go so the gf was left no choice but to make me open it. A few more parts and the heads will be off to have the broken bolts removed and a new exhaust will finally be on!

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Don't think I have anything else really.

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[Sampuppy1]

Oh yeah forgot. Power steering pump unloaded itself under the hood on the way home from Work one late night. Other asphalt buddy of mine and myself stayed up til 3am that night to fix it. Back up at 6 for work haha. I have some good friends. Only got one pic from That ordeal. This was when our second wind kicked in. We were not drunk. No time for that stuff during the season. Work sleep and poop. That's about all we do.

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yeah I'm the guy under the truck. I do my own dirty work unless someone else volunteers. Also took the liberty of deleting that blasted EVO whatchajigger. Who knew the reman pump comes with an adapter line just for that purpose?? No more choppy steering on the sweeping curves and loop on ramps and off ramps. Full pressure all the time.

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